Blowin’ In the Wind (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), 1963
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ’n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Copyright © 1962 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1990 by Special Rider Music
Masters of War (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), 1963
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
Oxford Town (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), 1963
Oxford Town, Oxford Town
Ev'rybody's got their hats bowed down
The sun don't shine above the ground
Ain't a-goin' down to Oxford Town.
He went down to Oxford Town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face was brown
Better get away from Oxford Town.
Oxford Town around the bend
He comes to the door, he couln't get in
All because of the color of his skin
What do you think about that, my frien' ?
Me and my gal, my gal's son
We got met with a tear gas bomb
I don't even know why we come
Goin' back where we come from.
Oxford Town in the afternoon
Ev'rybody singin' a sorrowful tune
Two men died 'neath the Mississippi moon
Somebody better investigate soon.
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (The Times They Are a-Changin’), 1964
William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie
Carroll
With a cane that he twirled around his
diamond ring finger
At a Baltimore hotel society gath'rin'
And the cops were called in and his
weapon took from him
As they rode him in custody down to the
station
And booked William Zanzinger for firstdegree murder
But you who philosophize disgrace and
criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
Who just cleaned up all the food from the
table
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole
other level
Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane
That sailed through the air and came
down through the room
Doomed and determined to destroy all
the gentle
And she never done nothing to William
Zanzinger
And you who philosophize disgrace and
criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
William Zanzinger who at twenty-four
years
Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres
With rich wealthy parents who provide
and protect him
And high office relations in the politics of
Maryland
Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his
shoulders
And swear words and sneering and his
tongue it was snarling
In a matter of minutes on bail was out
walking
But you who philosophize disgrace and
criticize all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears.
In the courtroom of honor, the judge
pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the
courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't
pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly
handled
Once that the cops have chased after and
caught 'em
And that ladder of law has no top and no
bottom
Stared at the person who killed for no
reason
Who just happened to be feelin' that way
witout warnin'
And he spoke through his cloak, most
deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and
repentance
William Zanzinger with a six-month
sentence
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace
and criticize all fearsv
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.
Hattie Carroll was a maid in the kitchen
She was fifty-one years old and gave birth
to ten children
Who carried the dishes and took out the
garbage
And never sat once at the head of the
table
And didn't even talk to the people at the
table
With God on Our Side (The Times They Are a-Changin’), 1964
Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And the land that I live in
Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.
The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns on their hands
And God on their side.
The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.
Chimes of Freedom (Another Side of Bob Dylan), 1964
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's
broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder
crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in
the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is
not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed
road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the
night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
In the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we
watched
With faces hidden as the walls were
tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the
blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an'
forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin' constantly at
stake
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
Through the mad mystic hammering of the
wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far
into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of
the mind
An' the poet an the painter far behind his
rightful time
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
In the wild cathedral evening the rain
unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring
their thoughts
All down in taken-for granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an' blind, tolling for the
mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the
mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an'
cheated by pursuit
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
Even though a clouds's white curtain in a faroff corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly
lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but
for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from
drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their
speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too
personal a tale
An' for each unharmfull, gentle soul misplaced
inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we
were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged
suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched
with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling
ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot
be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused,
strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole
wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom
flashing.
The Times They Are a-Changin’ (The Times They Are a-Changin’), 1964
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.